Written by

Dave Berman

FLORIDA TODAY

An employee of the Brevard County Clerk of Courts office wants to examine ballots from the Aug. 14 Republican primary, as he continues to express concerns about the results of the election, in which his boss was defeated.

Sean Campbell, the chief deputy to Clerk of Courts Mitch Needelman, has been trading emails with Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott, seeking to examine ballots from three election precincts. Campbell has suspicions about the accuracy of the reported vote counts, and wants to compare the paper ballots with reported totals.

In the Republican primary, former Clerk of Courts Scott Ellis received 61 percent of the vote, to defeat Needelman, who got 39 percent.

Campbell — who said he is raising the concerns as a private citizen and not on behalf of Needelman — said he is suspicious because pre-election polling by Needelman’s campaign indicated that the results would be close. He also is suspicious that the total number of people casting ballots in the Needelman-Ellis race was smaller than in other countywide Republican primaries on the ballot, including sheriff and property appraiser.

But Scott said those suspicions don’t prove anything was wrong with the announced vote count.

“We don’t verify the results of an election by a candidate’s polling,” Scott said.

Scott said the questions Campbell is raising about the accuracy of the reported primary results are “a very serious thing,” and bring into question all the primary results.

Campbell said he is not pointing fingers. But he wants be sure the ballots were properly counted.

He said, if he finds discrepancies in the vote count, he plans to go before a Circuit Court judge to see what he could do about having the election overturned and removing whoever became the sitting elected official.

Campbell also questions Scott’s cost estimate of $7,989.85 for accomplishing his request. The estimate includes 14 hours of staff time for a $200-an-hour attorney, the staff time of other employees needed to monitor Campbell inspecting the ballots from three precincts of his choosing, plus related costs for sorting out absentee and early-voting ballots by precinct, and public notices.

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Scott said, under Florida law, the ballots must be in control of her staff at all times. She said a staff member can show them to Campbell, one by one, so he can count them, if he wants to do that.

Campbell, who also was on Needelman's campaign-steering committee, said he now is awaiting an estimate from Scott on what it would cost for him to get photocopies of the ballots, rather than getting access to the originals. Campbell said he believes the cost of getting photocopies would be less than $300.

Scott said Campbell’s is one of a number of public-records requests pending at her office, not to mention requests for absentee ballots for the Nov. 6 election, and he will have to wait his turn for an answer.

She said, if Campbell wants to pay the costs involved in examining the ballots, he is welcome to do so, but said a 22 percentage point vote difference between the two candidates in this race does not warrant an official recount.

If the actual costs of examining the ballots are lower than estimated, Campbell will be refunded the difference.

Ellis said Campbell’s suspicions are “ludicrous.”

“It’s asinine,” Ellis said. “There is no other term for it. The whole thing is nuts. (Needelman) got crushed. He got slaughtered.”

There were no Democrats entered in the race. Ellis faces write-in candidate Michael Gaeta in the Nov. 6 general election.